Planning For The Year Ahead

If you get a few quiet minutes during the day, we would suggest you visit our good friends over at the Directory of Chester. The website, which lists businesses and services available to both residents and visitors, is chock full of fascinating features, useful details regarding things happening in and around the City and a wealth of valuable information about where to eat, sleep and shop. Recent articles in their blog include: Looking for the Perfect Christmas Weekend Break? and Christmas and New Year is all wrapped up at the Helsby Arms, Frodsham, Cheshire. Why not head over there right away and make the most of the festive season by listing your business?

We are as busy as ever at the Border Distribution Centre, with winter brochures filling our vans and 2010 leaflets arriving for the anticipated spring scramble.

A brief reminder to existing clients and anyone else intending to use LDS Tourism Services for leaflet distribution next year: the crucial word is ‘early’! The sooner we receive your promotional print, the better spread you will have in time for Easter!

We wish you all a thoroughly spooky and profitable Halloween.

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Stats, Statements & Staycations!

We are extremely excited about 2010 - not least because we are working with several new partner companies in other parts of the UK. Next year, our clients will also benefit considerably from the many new high-footfall display sites (some of them exclusive to LDS) secured over the past few months.

As you all know, in addition to our long-established brochure marketing facilities, we now offer Social Media packages - however, we are also on the verge of announcing the launch of a brand new service that will propel LDS Tourism to the forefront of 21st century marketing techniques. All will be revealed very soon!

Continuing the theme of our last article, a recent poll by Which? Holiday has shown that one of the biggest complaints of holidaymakers is that visitor attractions are often overcrowded, badly managed or have long queues. The consumer study also showed airport congestion at the top of the list of frustrations experienced by travellers. Nevertheless, of the 5,003 consumers surveyed, more than half (53%) had no frustrations with any aspect of their holiday, and for those who holidayed in the UK, the satisfaction level increased by 60%.

Even more encouraging are reports from Hoseasons that advance bookings for 2010 are up 61% to 100,000, compared with the same period last year. The Company’s chief executive, Richard Carrick, commented last week that there has been “a seismic change in consumer behaviour, with people spending less and choosing to holiday in the UK”. Indeed, he says that next year, “Hoseasons will sell one million sports and activity holidays with 140 of its 440 holiday parks offering those types of breaks.”

VisitEngland has also published figures showing that domestic trips were up by 14 per cent, or 2.7m, for the first six months of 2009, compared with the same period last year.

Perhaps the UK ‘staycation’ really is here to stay!

A brief reminder to anyone with Christmas and/or New Year literature: your leaflets should be out there, on display, right now. Don’t miss out on promoting your festive event or offer by delaying distribution a moment longer!

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